The area around the Singapore River has been witness to a number of engineering feats in the the history of modern Singapore. Peter Chan gives us an eye-in-the-sky view of how the underground MRT tunnel was built 20 metres below the Singapore River.
Peter describes the construction work at Empress Place 25 years ago:
When I looked below the Standard Chartered Bank building, something else caught my eyes and with the help of a pair of binoculars I found something interesting. I refer to the MRT tunnel that was constructed under the Singapore River, a very massive civil engineering project. The tunnel was 93 meter long and 20 meters under the river-bed. It was an interesting introduction to underwater tunneling.
Construction activity first began on the Empress Place bank side of the Singapore River where a cofferdam was in place – concrete between walls of rusty steel piles. But this time something different was taking place. There was a crane mounted on a barge lifting steel piles out of the water. Vibration was applied before the steel piles were pulled out of the water. Mini excavators removed earth from the coffer dam and dumped into an anchored barge. After the cofferdam was demolished, the waters of the Singapore River flowed through.
Check out more pictures in Peter’s post at Good Morning Yesterday. The MRT has been such a hallmark of modern Singapore, that it’s hard to imagine Raffles Place without it. The next time you cross the Cavenagh Bridge, remember that there may be a train snaking in the tunnel below you!
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